{"id":2581,"date":"2006-05-31T20:39:28","date_gmt":"2006-05-31T20:39:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blacktypebugler.com\/?p=2581"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"oldbtb_2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/?p=2581","title":{"rendered":"Al Hirth Steps up to Grade II Status"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Saturday marked the 8th<\/SUP> running of the Captain Hook Stakes<\/B>.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>This stakes race has produced numerous historically graded B horses over the years including North Can<\/B>, A Smock, <\/B>and Gingerbread<\/st1:City> Man.<\/st1:State><\/st1:place><\/B>\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Two other horses of note that should be mentioned are Grade I winner Fusaichi Gulch<\/B> and turf great Extortionist<\/B> were also winners of this race.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>The favorites Saturday were Samoth, Euler <\/B>and Parejo<\/B> all going off at 6-1.<\/P>

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Al Hirth<\/B> shocks the New York<\/st1:State><\/st1:place> racing world with its stunning victory this past Saturday in the Captain Hook Stakes.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>The Captain Hook was loaded with Grade II and Grade III horses, but Saturday it was former Allowance only winner that stole the show.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>O\/T Zooomr was speechless after Saturday\u2019s victory but did have say that this horse now has the potential to compete in possibly Grade I races down the road.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>This Dixieland Band X Kris S. 3YO colt paid $26.50 while earning a career best 103 in the 1 1\/8 for 3YOs.\u00a0 <\/SPAN><\/P>

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>At the start, as expected, Cooperstown<\/B><\/st1:place> raced to 2 length lead over its nearest competitor while the rest of the field positioned themselves for the finish.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>At the turn Samoth<\/B> took the lead by a nose over Flying Wood <\/B>while Rainbow Phyl <\/B>and Woodyna<\/B> prepared for the stretch run.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>In the stretch Al Hirth\u2019s jockey, Darling, maneuvered this colt beautifully around the traffic and raced for home with a driving 1 3\/4 length victory.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Al Hirth<\/B> has now won four races in its short eleven race career, yet this race is its greatest yet.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Al Hirth<\/B> now joins Zooomr\u2019s other Grade III winner Pete Fountain <\/B>as its top horses in its barn today.<\/P>

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>This was outstanding race to watch and I hope to see Al Hirth<\/B> run again down road in possibly some Grade I races.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Also on a more personal note, who read my preview of this horse to it, yikes was I wrong about Al Hirth<\/B> not being up to Grade II status.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Al Hirth<\/B> posted a 103 speed rating and the average rating this year seems to be about 105 for Grade II route races for 3YO.<\/P>

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Comments and suggestions are welcome<\/P>

APHill40@aol.com<\/A><\/P>

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Good luck to all this week.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shocker in New York<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":259,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/259"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2581\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}